We've got a good look at the BlackBerry Bold 9790 plenty of times in the past already but it never looked like the image above. Despite all its blurry glory, that is a redesigned BlackBerry Bold 9790 that is suggested to be launching in late November. Rather then keeping the styling as we know it, RIM seemingly decided to give the 9790 an updated look by adding some buttons off the BlackBerry Torch 9850/60 series. While I can't say I'm overly fond of the redesign some may like it, and that's all that counts.

Another rumor to go along with it courtesy of BGR -- BlackBerry 7.1, the first major upgrade to BlackBerry 7 is suggested to be arriving before the end of the year, not much else there for info but OS 7.1 has been showing up more often most recently in app logs and such.

Can RIM stop putting out 5000 phones and focus on 2 or 3? This might help the developers for both hardware AND software concentrate on the so-called "Superphone" which is supposed to be "out in the next few months, thus making these phones that are being released pointless".

Awesome, nice job RIM. Oh and yes, this looks like garbage. The 9850/60's look cheap as well. The Storm 2 had a really beautiful design.. and a glass screen.

You're wrong about that. The form factor is different. A lot of people find the Bold 9000 and 9900/9930 sizes to be too wide. The 9700/80/90 form is great. Adding the 9900 features to that style will see a lot of sales for that model.

The new style Torch buttons work for me. It helps differentiate the models a little further.

Will they please stop making HORRIBLE looking designs. They don't need this phone. The New Torches, Bold, and Curve is all they need. Just keep tweaking the OS's with new stuff. What the hell are they thinking???

When I saw those buttons on the Torch 9850/60 leak photos I thought they were pretty awful. Then it got released that way. I still wanted the device despite those dumb looking buttons and got myself the Torch 9850. However, I can't seem to understand what purpose they have. I've had the Storm1, Storm2 and then the Bold 9650 and I can't justify why RIM would want to put these buttons on a full touch screen phone. Now the Bold is being messed up.

Ewwww. I loved the plastic jewel like buttons on my old 9700. I think the best home buttons were on the Storm 2, the touch sensitive buttons at the bottom of the touch glass. I'm surprised the touch home buttons aren't featured on OS6/OS7 BBs. Hopefully next gen we'll see one big touch screen with the track pad and home buttons integrated underneath the display. Like the Storm but with a track pad as well. With those buttons like on the Torch 9850/60 dust and dirt will for sure get in-between those keys. oh well.

That looks so photoshopped. The "new buttons" + trackpad portion looks like the bottom of the touchscreen torch (look at the right side, it doesn't even match up with the rest of the phone, nice attempt but the blur doesn't hide this...). It makes no sense why RIM would add buttons. None.

UGH! RIM, idk what you are trying to accomplish here. They already have the new Bold, Curve and Torch which looked fine. These new buttons look horrible! Just focus on fixing the OS and making BB better.

I cannot for the life of me understand the reasoning behind this. I'm sure they're more functional or whatever. But we can't forget that aesthetics serve a FUNCTION by not turning away potential buyers at first sight. Why would you add a bunch of ugly raised keys that share nothing in common with the aesthetic qualities of the rest of the device? RIM perplexes me. Looks like they reached in the recycled parts bin for these keys. I didn't make a big deal about it when it happened with the 9860/50 because I thought it was a one-device deal. But really?

These blackbeRry designers simply have no taste. Just bad taste. They are just bunch of engineers with no artistic sense at all. "Hey let's make the button easier to press" "make it pop out, isn't this cool looking?" " Wow so cool, let's try to make it look like a transformer car!"

Since this phone is irrelevant, I wonder if the new bbx phones will eventually be one with a landscape keyboard??? I can see myself typing on the Bold keyboard as wide as a touchscreen phone......interesting thought.

That's just a fake image!! Don't worry, they didn't even use Photoshop to do it right! Looks like they used MS Paint. They cut 9850 buttons and pasted it to the bottom of a 9790 screen...this is classic BGR BS!

Not so sure about your image being a fake, Bla1ze, but pretty sure about this one. If you look really close, the buttons on this image differ from the ones on yours. There are no chromed borders on these buttons, so FAKE! I still have faith in the original design. These buttons make this Bold look like a flip Moto phone I owned back in 2005!

perhaps im weird but im loving the 9850 physical buttons. Coming from the 9520 i feel frustrated each time i tried to push the buttons when the phone is resting on flat surfaces. They just doesnt want to be pressed.

Plus, every morning when my alarm goes off I dont need to open my eyes to look for the snooze button. I can just stretch my arm and feel them on the 9850. I would pay for 10 times the full price of 9850s for not having to open my eyes for that extra 5 minutes every morning.

Woohoo; another phone that "leapfrogs" the competition by adding some buttons. :)

When will RIM learn that it already has too many different phones; too many different form factors; too many screen sizes; and too many operating systems. RIM should scale back its entire phone system to no more than 3 phones - and even I prefer that number to be lower. All this does is confuse the consumer and alienate developers who now have to have a version of their app for so many different models/screen sizes/capabilities/etc.

Oh well, its not like RIM listens to any of their consumers for advice anyways. So keep it up RIM, I can't wait to see the major changes that will be coming when the "new" 9791, 9792, 9793, 9793 Version 2 come out ;)

I agree with Darlaten... RIM is missing out here and falling farther behind the competition!! We need 4g, NFC, more robust system and less of these changing button layouts. Whey are they even bothering with a minor revision like this when the overall goal QNX operating system.

I've been a BB lover and user for years.. but they are losing fans like myself with these types of "new phones"

I get it, if you don't like, don't buy it but RIM continues to make some HIGHLY questionable decisions. It gets harder and harder not to laugh at some of the stuff they're doing. Since when has raised buttons ever been better looking than flush buttons? Were the flush buttons on all the previous Bold's hard to use?

Im looking forward to the next Bold after giving up on my 9900 due to horrible battery life & Terrible camera & currently back on my Trusty 9700 but will eventually get back on the white 9780 when 9900 is sold. I hope the 9790 has the same battery as the 9700/9780 or better & an upgraded autofocus camera then i will safely say i will be getting this phone.

Bold 9900 series, very nice looking. Sort of like when Ford brought back the classic Mustang design, Chevy brought back the Camaro, etc.

Everything else (besides the Torch 9800/10, which really isn't bad in terms of aesthetics)? Designed ugly so that they can "leapfrog" themselves.

Now, I'm hungry for some froglegs... I've been so jaded with RIM lately. I still think my 9550 performed better than my 9850. Even it was slow as hell, it was more stable than this phone. I don't even touch the screen and it goes everywhere... Maybe I should have it make me a cheese pizza :P

This was going to be the perfect device...the power of a 9900 in the size of a 9700 with a small but super crisp 640 x 480 screen...i just cant take those butt fugly buttons. If this phone comes out looking like this i may just have to jump ship...

buttons are fine. recently tried BB 9360 with bits of flat plastic that was too unresponsive to touch. you had to press real hard to make 'back' or 'BB' key work. Sent it back. No good. actually it seemed really 'cheap and nasty'.
And yes, please do let's go back to 2003 [as some wit in one of the threads on here that i can't find anymore was joking about] - some of the phones from then were actually much better than today's.

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